Moving this thread back to Eddi though. I have 'Eddi Reader Sings The Songs of Robert Burns' and it's just beautiful. I can't find it at the moment, as my daughter borrowed it...grrrr...I'm going to ask Father Christmas for 'Angels and Electricity' and her brand new one 'Love Is The Way'...so fingers crossed that he's listening. :0)
BBC Review On this evidence it'll be a long (or should that be lang?) time before Reader and her...
Chris Jones 2003-06-02
Eddi Reader's voice is an undeniably awesome thing. Her ability to swoop, soar and generally take your breath away has been a proven fact since Fairground Attraction's First Of A Million Kisses in 1988. Yet attempting new interpretations of the work of Scotland's greatest bard may be, to some of you, a step too far. Is it merely an exercise in trying to prove the old cliche about singing the phone book and making it sound wonderful? Surely old Rabbie just wrote corny stuff about mice and haggises? Well, wrong and wrong again. For Reader wants the world to rediscover what most residents of Scotland's West coast have known for three centuries. Burns wrote a top lyric and his words, filtered through Eddi's lovely larynx, again, come to life on this release.
Sure enough the usual classics are revisited. ''My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose'', ''Auld Lang Syne'' and ''Charlie Is My Darling'' all get a dusting down; but with a band and arrangements as good as this, it's like listening to a brand new repertoire. Ably abetted by her usual band and featuring the awesome fiddle of John McCusker and the lush orchestral arrangements of Kevin McRae, Reader has reached a logical point in a career that's gradually moved nearer to pure folk with every release. In her voluminous sleeve notes she contextualises the project by recounting how her move from the urban sprawl of Glasgow to the Ayrshire town of Irvine brought Burns' magic to her attention.
The delicate acoustic backings focus the mind on Burns' words. It's the universality of his messages that Eddi's attempting to convey here. The bawdy ''Brose And Butter''; the declaration of lasting devotion ''John Anderson My Jo''; and the call for political moderation and peace ''Ye Jacobites'' - all have a contemporary relevance. And as John McCusker says in his commentary, it's in no way in danger of being ''dead posh''.
If there's a reservation it's in the somewhat cloying nature of the strings of the RSNO. Yet this is a small gripe in the face of such a fresh look at a man's work that's justly celebrated every 25th of January north of the border. Interestingly the finest moment arrives with the song ''Wild Mountainside'' which isn't actually by Burns at all, but by the Trash Can Sinatras' John Douglas. It's included to demonstrate how the poet's muse lives on in Scotland to this day. On this evidence it'll be a long (or should that be lang?) time before Reader and her friends lose their inspiration.
And from Eddi's myspace page, about her new CD:
>>>>>>I am going on the road to play some new songs from my new record LOVE IS THE WAY.
This record was made over three sessions in a little recording room down an abandoned alley in a few sunny hours and thundery hours in Glasgow, last summer.
It was one of my ambitions to find a brilliant, warm environment to play live in and record in. I also wanted to meet an engineer who would be empathetic to my desire for capturing mood and feeling over technical trickery.
Mark Freegard had been working as an engineer in London and America successfully for years. Working on recordings by: Justin Currie and Del Amitri, The Breeders, Manic Street Preachers, Marilyn Manson, Maria McKee, Madder Rose and many more.
He left London to move up to Glasgow because he fell in love. He found this little room above the Glasgow to Helensburgh train line where he has installed his recording system.
It's a rented place that was a former rehearsal/ writing space for The Blue Nile. Boo Hewerdine had worked with him and encouraged me to check out Mark and the space. I didn't bother. I was depressed and dark about not having a lot of money to record a new record. I had talked to Geoff Travis at Rough Trade earlier in the year about perhaps doing a 'best of' record and having a couple of extra tracks. The boys in the band wanted a record of some kind so that we could tour later in the year. So I was looking for somewhere to record two tracks.
Boo yet again told me of Mark so, reluctantly, I investigated it. I walked up the alley past the wild cats and tripping over the potholes. I walked in highly sceptical and angry, burned out, hopeless. Feeling I would never find anyone who would help me. I noticed that Mark had his recording desk unusually in the middle of the recording room. I saw lots of windows that let in light and the noise of Argyle Street never mind the train that kept on coming under the floor. I noticed the wall full of winking burlesque girls from the sixties.
I told him that I would like to try a session with the live band thinking I would hear something negative about how not possible it was in that place. But Mark was so positive, excited even, and when Roy arrived after driving from London all night he and Mark hugged each other because they were old friends.
As the boys arrived everything got mic'd up. Boo had a couple of new songs I wanted to try and I remembered Jack Maher from Sharon Shannon's band had a beautiful tune, so I called him up and got him to come over from Dublin. I had a few others that might sound good so I had sent little demos of the songs to everyone. Boo and John and Jack taught the chords to each other and we set sail. Mark recorded everything and I don't know how he got the clear real sound he did. I think it might be a secret.
After the first day's session I realised we had five tracks and I thought I had the beginnings of a new record. I sent the first day's recordings to Geoff Travis of Rough Trade and he set me a budget to record a full album.
My history is well known and if you happen not to know it, GOOD! Forget it. I am starting from here.
I have a passionate love of instinctive, beautiful songs. Also a slightly insane attachment to romantic chord structures. Words that speak of some universal humanist truth. That can be 'thrown away' with no regrets. This can be summed up in most of the songs on this record.
That's it... I hope you like it. It's personal to me and maybe nothing to do with corporate commercialism nor is it meant to be. There is only something ambitious in the hope that whoever hears it will use it as I have used it, to soundtrack life a little bit. To dance with bare feet to yourself singing along with me.
And if you listen carefully you will hear the Helensburgh train. Always came in on time…
Eddi xxx
LOVE IS THE WAY is out now on Rough Trade Records.<<<<